iMessage (Messages) numbers-only fix

This is a simple sledgehammer approach to fix a bug in macOS Big Sur that causes Notifications from Messages.app to display only the phone number for incoming messages (not the name from your Address Book).

The script restarts (kickstarts) a handful of core services that, through trial and error, I determined to be associated with the local AddressBook database. This script was tested on macOS 11.4, on an Intel Mac Mini.

N.B. Existing notifications are not updated, this only affects notifications that come in after the script has been run.

Setup

1. Download the imessage_number_fix.sh script above, or clone this repo.
2. Copy the script to a directory in your $PATH e.g. /usr/local/bin
3. Open a Terminal
4. Type chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/imessage_number_fix.sh

Usage

Whenever you encounter this bug, run the script by typing imessage_number_fix.sh in a Terminal.

Related Discussion

• Messages.app notification only shows contact number instead of contact names on macOS - Ask Different